Is There in Truth No Beauty? (episode)
A beautiful woman escorts an alien ambassador so hideously ugly that the sight of him can drive a human mad. Summary Background Information * This was an unsolicted script which Robert Justman read and recommended. * A well-documented blooper is that Kirk stays in the room while the Medusan is beamed away, which should have caused him to go mad. Spock has his visor on during the process. Perhaps beaming Kollos away was safe to watch and Spock only put on his visor to watch the ambassador go as he had watched him arrive. Perhaps. * The Vulcan IDIC was inserted into the script and into the episode at the behest of Gene Roddenberry, who wanted to sell the prop as an item at his Lincoln Enterprises. Nimoy, Shatner, and others were outraged at this, but the IDIC symbol was used under protest anyway. * Ralph Senensky's excellent direction includes extensive use of wide-angle lenses to capture the madness of Spock and Marvick in bizarre ways. * George Duning again contributes an excellent musical score. Use of a weird-sounding organ accentuates the strange nature of Kollos. * Leonard Nimoy was able to portray other beings on numerous occasions through mindmelds, but his performance here is really amazing, imparting Kollos' childlike wonderment at the senses of humanoids, our communication medium, and our separateness from one another, as well as his disappointment at having to dissolve the link so soon. * The dining room has pictures of exotic planets on its walls. These will show up in Kirk's quarters in other third-season episodes. Accordng to the 'Star Trek' 30th anniversary book, Mike Minor painted these scenes. * At the end of the dining room scene, Kirk drinks the last of his glass of brandy only to have it half full again seconds later. * The arboretum is a re-dress of the recreation room, seen only in the episode And the Children Shall Lead. * Matt Jeffries designed the box that held Ambassador Kollos. * In a precursor to Geordi's visor in TNG, Miranda Jones uses a sensor web to gather information about her surroundings and disguise her blindness. * Larry Marvick helped design the engines of the Enterprise. Scotty's joy at meeting one of his ship's creators leads him to hand the controls over to Marvick during his madness. * This episode has many complexities that leave the viewer thinking long afterward. What did Marvick mean when he said Miranda had "brought it" with her to engineering? Did Miranda purposely make Spock forget the visor? Why did she say that healing Spock meant life or death for both of them? Each viewer can interpret these incidents in their own way. * Shots of the 'Enterprise' in the galactic void and barrier are partially new shots and partially recycled from Where No Man Has Gone Before. * After Kirk confronts Dr. Jones in sickbay, watch Diana Muldaur trying to keep from laughing by biting her lip. * This was Eddie Paskey's last appearance in the series. * Coincidentally, when David Frankham guested on 'The Outer Limits', in the episode, "Do Not Open Till Doomsday", his character was also the victim of an alien hidden in a box which did its damage when looked upon. * A crewmember in a corridor appears to be chewing gum. * This is the last appearance of anti-gravs in the series. * An extremely insightful portion of this episode establishes the fact that, since telepathy is a two-way street, telepaths must train themselves to shut out the random thoughts and emotions of others that bombard them every day. * There are several tie-ins with Shakespeare in this episode. Miranda was the name of Prospero's virginal daughter in "The Tempest." Dr. Jones wants nothing to do with men romantically, wishing only to join minds with Kollos and exile herself to his world. Spock/Kollos and Miranda also quote the play when Kollos sees Miranda for the first time through humanoid eyes: "O brave new world, That has such people in't." To which Miranda answers, "'Tis new to thee." * The episode title is from a poem by the 17th century English poet George Herbert. * In this episode and "The Empath", Leonard Nimoy has some serious nasal congestion! * A scene which shows crewman listening to the intercom in a corridor is reused from The Corbomite Maneuver. * During the fight scene in Engineering, a crewman is thrown against one of the two large, gray cowlings that sit in the middle of the floor. Watch closely: It moves when he hits it! * As the ship is being flung to the far reaches of the galaxy (and they sure arrive there quickly!), there is rare but recycled shot of the ship coming straight at camera and going over the top of the frame. Memorable Quotes * "Don't love her! Don't love her! She'll kill you if you love her! I love you, Miranda." - Larry Marvick * "With my words, I'll make you hear such ugliness, that Spock saw when he looked at Kollos with his naked eyes-- the ugliness is within you!" - Kirk to Dr. Jones * "And Uhura, whose name means freedom. 'She walks in beauty, like the night.'" "That's not Spock." "Are you surprised that I've read Byron, Doctor?" "That's Spock!" - Spock/Kollos and McCoy * "This thing you call language, though...most remarkable. You depend on it for so very much, but is any one of you really its master?" - Spock/Kollos Links and References VHS edition available through Amazon under ISBN 630021365X. Main cast * William Shatner as Kirk * Leonard Nimoy as Spock * DeForest Kelley as McCoy * James Doohan as Scott * George Takei as Sulu * Nichelle Nichols as Uhura * Walter Koenig as Chekov Guest Stars * Diana Muldaur as Dr. Miranda Jones * David Frankham as Dr. Larry Marvick * Lou Elias as engineer (uncredited) * Vince Deadrick as engineer (uncredited) * Eddie Paskey as Leslie (uncredited) * William Blackburn as Hadley (uncredited) * Frank da Vinci as Brent (uncredited) * Roger Holloway as Roger Lemli (uncredited) References Antarean brandy; antigrav; IDIC; Kollos; Medusans; mind-link; sensor web; telepathy; visor; Vulcan; Vulcans; Vulcan salute; warp drive. DVD Media Information * Star Trek: The Original Series, Volume 31 (original two episode single-disc release) * ''Star Trek: The Original Series'' - The Complete Third Season (disc 2 of the set) Category:TOS episodes de:Die fremde Materie nl:Is There in Truth No Beauty?